Fox's Bill Sammon pushes right's favorite new meme: Ft. Hood shootings were 'terrorist attack' like Oklahoma City, 9/11
By David Neiwert Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 9:00am
Right wingers have been doing their damnedest since the Fort Hood shootings last week to use them as an excuse to attack Muslims and generally do their favorite schtick, aka fearmongering.
Yesterday, during the Fox News broadcast of the memorial service for the victims at Fort Hood, Fox contributor Bill Sammon took this the next step: He began openly referring to the Fort Hood case as a "terrorist attack" and actually compared it to Oklahoma City and 9/11:
Sammon: I think it's really going to be key to see the tone and tenor of the Commander in Chief when he addresses this crowd. Because it's actually a very important moment in his presidency.
Think about this. This is the first time that he's going to be responding in a major way to, really the first major act of terrorism against the United States on our soil. And there's some similarities and some analogies to when President Clinton addressed the nation after Oklahoma City, to when George W. Bush went to address the nation from Ground Zero -- both of those times, just like this, were early on in the presidencies, and really, in those earlier two examples, to some extent, they were, uh, forums in which the presidents sort of found their voices, especially if you think about Ground Zero, where President Bush had trouble sort of presenting a real strong, uh, public face for the first couple of days, and then he went to Ground Zero and said, 'I can hear you, and pretty soon the people here are going to hear from all of us.'
So it's an important moment when a president addresses the nation in the wake of a terrorist act against U.S. interests.
Throughout the day Fox was running a logo calling the event "Attack on Fort Hood," and featuring investigative reports suggesting that the shooter, Nidal Hasan, was acting at the bidding of radical imams -- even though none of the evidence so far actually concretely shows that Hasan was acting as an Islamic terrorist.
Indeed, most of the evidence so far seems to indicate this was a militarized case of "going postal" -- which is always a horrific thing, but lacks the political/ideological component that always defines real acts of terrorism.
President Obama, in fact, has been urging the public not to leap to unwarranted conclusions about the shooter's motives. Looks like Fox News and Bill Sammon have decided to just ignore that advice. After all, they have an agenda to push.
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And remember, there are a limited number of oil rich countries we can occupy at one time ....
Make sure they are conducted by trained psychiatic personnel, with years of experience and at least a rank of major. To avoid infiltrators, it would be best to use those who were educated and trained while obligated to the military.
Anyone who professes to identify themselves first by their religious beliefs, and then as an American of military persuasion, should be watched like a hawk by former members of the Bush administration with time on their hands.
Invade Canada?
@_@
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7UKllR0Edo&fe...
let's say it was a muslim militant attack. We have gone to war by attacking two muslim nations. Would the muslims have the right to fight back? They want to call it a terrorist attack but what do they call it when we go to war and bomb innocent civilians in two muslim nations, collatoral damage. Even if he was involved with the Taliban, he would only be a soldier trying to defend his muslim heritage.
See what they made you say?
I get what you're saying, but Iraq wasn't a Muslim nation, it was a secular nation.
Also, the Taliban wasn't our enemy, heck we supported them to defeat the Russians. They were willing to give OBL up. (BTW, where is mister 'wanted dead or alive!?')
'terrorist' and 'freedom fighter' are interchangeable when the US gets involved. It just depends on our gov't's
wishesprofit motive at the time.If he was indeed working as an agent for Al Qaeda, then how would this be a terrorist act? Wouldn't it be an attack on our military by our enemy during a time of war?
Great point, I'd totally agree with that. THAT should be our side's position against this repug attack on all Muslims. Not just hollers of "Nuh-uh!"
And you don't ?
Why are you telegraphing this faux news crap ?
There's more fishiness around the Fort Hood
story than the lone-islamic-gunman theory ...
Without drawing any conclusions, the initial
new report discrepancies themselves lead to
questions.
Unless you're suggesting we should take the
'current' news at face value, and disregard
anything thats gone before ?
.
KBR POISONS TROOPS...
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/kbr-poisoned-1000...
... TERRORISM!
KBR ELECTROCUTES TROOPS...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/22/soldier.elec...
... TERRORISM!
KBR RAPES AND IMPRISONS...
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/halliburton-emp...
... TERRORISM!
.
And what about..."Obama administration renews KBR defense contracts"...? Terrorism? No, I think there is another "T" word for it though.
Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:15 — Carly Corday
And what about..."Obama administration renews KBR defense contracts"...? Terrorism? No, I think there is another "T" word for it though.
____________________________________________________________
Tough titties?
.
isn't that the Capital of Georgia, a star in the crown jewel of Tsarist Russia?
.
The shooting of dozens of soldiers at an American military base was
an act of......_______________________.
Mental break?
caused by a deranged man who lost control, bought a gun, and intended to go out in a blaze of fire.
.
an act of attempted suicide by cop.
Sorry, but it's sure terrorism to me. I'm asking myself why I feel I have to start my sentence with "sorry."
Above all, let's move the whole discussion away from blaming the Army for every one of the foreseeable deaths and woundings that day.
It was a horrible crime, but the targets were not civilians, so it doesn't fit the definition of terrorism.
... of what may happen to him should he ever be caught in Afghanistan by the opposing forces?
Isn't there something in the Qu'ran about killing those who fight agianst their own?
of the mosque where Hassan worshipped while in Killeen accrding to the television interview I saw. He did say if a Muslim has a problem killing other Muslims he should not join the Army.
a deranged man.
If Hasan were a white Christian, FOX and Beck would be saying his anger was justifiable because of the communist/socialist/nazi in the White House and the "Democrat congress" trying to take away everybody's freedoms with their "socialist agenda" and that he was simply watering the tree of liberty.
That's what they're hoping. Let's get Kristol on to make a link to Iran.
get ready for him rolling out the ol' chalk board using ridiculous and baseless diagrams and flow charts connecting Czars and the White House to his "politically correct" conspiracy theory. Teh Obama Administration dun it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0qNGYxUwmU&fe...
as good an answer as any....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlGm8Qo31Gs
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/ozy...
Sounds like the name of a summer heavy metal tour.
... fear of Monday mornings.
The same folks who claim "hate crime" legislation is somehow the thought police think they can decide what ANY Muslim is thinking.
Seems like they are just "con"fused?
That's SHOCKING!!!!!
Does Bill Sammon remember that George W. Bush was the governor of Texas when Oklahoma City happened and that the phones in Austin were not working that morning?
It's the new Pravda. Let's stop arguing as to whether it's a real news organization or not. Utter jackasses.
Wait one minute as one of the "Utter jackasses" . . .
(jk)
to be a part of a society that condones this sort of thing.
when they give me all the other hate crimes committed by rightwing terrorists in this country. Mass murder through religious/political extremism is terror. It's used to inject fear and hate by sending a sadistic message to all remaining survivors.
murder is the number of victims. Why aren't you all discussing that aspect, you lying cowards?
Off topic but related.
All the god talk disgusts me. Lame ass platitudes devoid of any meaning, for me, just doesn't cut it.
God doesn't eat Tex-Mex?
"It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know - no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice - in this world, and the next. "
"So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America. "
This sort of talk IMO just dimishes all the meaningful things Obama was saying about those who died. Religion poisons (everything) eulogies.
Once again Fox cries Wolf.
FOX sells fear like cotton candy at a two bit carnival. And it's about as nutritious.
so he doesnt have far to go. he already believes this sort of thing is a 'terrorist' act because he's 'certain' of it. he has his certainty, never mind getting to the truth which may take time. he doesnt have time as he doesnt care about that. remember he lives in the world of 'the ticking time bomb' scenario, the jack bauer world, so time is something we never have. we have to act now. invade this country, blame that group, etc. time and facts are just things that clutter the foreground, sorta like some the lives of our military. you know, Bill, those lives that were unnecessarily placed in harm's way because you and your ilk (Bush/Cheney/Kristol/Gaffney/Krauthammer/Perle/Feith/Rummy/Addington) didn't CARE about time or facts or getting it right. you wanted and demanded action. right then and boy you got it. great going with your impetuousness, Bill, and trashing our country's reputation because of your disinterest in 'time and facts'. you're an ass. on a more positive note, thank you for all the service our brave men and women in uniform have done and always do.
.
It's very smart, as usual, of FOX to do this. They are aptly named! See, by taking this extreme position, which riles a few people, they anger us into taking a position that appears to defend the Fort Hood killer. And that riles MILLIONS of people. Fox News (the propaganda machine of the Right) continues to define us, using the abortion issue, which is an unresolvable difference, both sides are right about this and both sides are wrong, and by "issues" like what to call the Fort Hood rampage, in which THEY set up the game board, and we sit down to play just like they knew we would.
People can speculate all they want about motives, etc. I just hope this does not become the story continuously focused on.
Looks to me like he just snapped.
Insanity often takes the form of religious zeal, particularly among the schitzophrenic.
But people are too PC to suggest such a thing, particularly with Christians.
David Koresh and Jim Jones were simply labeled cults, and not properly identified by their doctrine which was Christian.
The FBI even cleared the shrink when they investigated his e-mails to that one imam, so are people going to suggest the FBI, particularly under boosh, are too P.C?
Of course his act had a political and ideological motivation. To think otherwise is being ignorant. However, it's still not a terrorist attack since he was attacking military troops and not civilians. It's no different than if the same troops were in Iraq and were killed. A tragedy, but not terrorism.
He attacked military troops on American soil. He shot at least one civilian through his random shootings. Let's not attempt to split hairs here because this opinion comes from a rightwing fascist propaganda outlet (FUX News) This was OBVIOUSLY a terrorist attack against a Western civilization from a radical Muslim as much as it would have been a terrorist attack under Christian extremism.
He was out to send a message to opposing religious cultures. The same senseless twisted spiritual dogmatic delusional sadistic message all religious extremists feel deep down in their psychotic souls: "My God Is Greater Then Your God And I'm Not Afraid To Die Or Kill To Prove It!! IT'S ALL TERRORISM!
How do you know? Maybe he was just really mad about the asshole who keyed his car.
He clearly was not stable.
That was a phrase I read in a review of the wildly speculative early reporting of this event. I wish I had bookmarked it and could provide a link. It is an accurate description of many accounts, including this one. I say that without implying criticism of anyone.
The blind men and the elephant comes to mind. Everyone brings a frame of reference to how they view things based on beliefs and perspectives. Those who primarily engage in political activity or opinion making will view all manner of things from that perspective.
Nobody is calling what happened at Virginia Tech an act of terrorism although some jumped to the conclusion it was a Muslim "who dunnit" before the smoke had cleared. Clearly the act itself caused terror.
The shooter was of Korean descent. Nobody called for an investigation of Koreans. Many questioned why the mental health system failed the shooter.
Many are today calling for an investigation of "what the Army knew and why it did nothing." Politicians like Joe Lieberman are jumping on the bandwagon. Charles Whitman killed and wounded a similar number
of people from atop the University of Texas tower in 1966. It was revealed he had previously told a university psychiatrist he sometimes felt like going on top of the tower and shooting people with a deer rifle. Nobody asked to investigate the University, the close relationship he had with the boy scouts, a priest who was close to him from altar boy days, or the influence of his Marine Corps experience or their failure to recognize his problems.
After the Whitman "massacre" (simpler times call for simpler terms)a Travis County Grand Jury issued this statement: "When a previously peaceful individual goes suddenly berserk this type of massacre could happen in any city in the world. It is the hope of the Grand Jury that a complete medical-legal case of Charles J. Whitman will be undertaken to determine not only the cause of this sudden aberration but also to make recommendations which might prevent a recurrence of such a terrible event.
I'd just add that the Army needs to have a better assessment of its officers than a university has of its students. For the Army to do its job, it needs to remove the people who show any signs of this capacity (I think).
Of course, its possible that we aren't talking about the proclivity to kill 40 or so people. We may be just talking about the conflicted sense of loyalty which would cause one of these massacres prematurely. Either way, the Army failed in catching this guy earlier.
Shouldn't we be talking about how the Army is stretched to thin and not capable of doing the job it needs to do?
He can be a Muslim Jihadist if every Soldier, Contractor and merc in their lands is called a Crusader... Which they do.... According to Private Docs, Blackwater called themselves Crusaders.
This is like a Post office worker being a Terrorist, but there was no POLITICAL MOTIVATION.
... because of all people/institutions, the military has the capability of fighting back. I mean, seriously, if Hasan's actions are established as being part of an organized plot, most soldiers are gonna say something like, "MF-ers gonna pay!" not, "Maybe we should rethink our policies."
Terrorism is best directed at the civilian populace, so that they demand changes from their leaders and/or take steps to change the leadership of their country.
"This is like a Post office worker being a Terrorist,"
So from the perspective of a Scientologist, what Dr. Hassan allegedly did could in the future be termed "going Psychiatric."
This is like a moron working for a 'news' organisation.
... it's a very nice paycheck.
... is that calling the incident 'terrorism' and speculating as to Major Hasan's motives can actually impact any criminal case pertaining to the issue.
It furthermore glorifies the act as terrorism and gives free air time to the 'radical Imam' who praised Hasan on his website.
And, since FOX is busy telling us the signs were there, they're indirectly indicting the United States military as accomplices in an act of terrorism.
Lastly, it continues to demonstrate that 'experts' like Col. Ralph Peters are nothing more than frightened little babies.
Telling us the signs were there is not necessarily the problem.
Signs were therewith Seung-Hui Cho, Charles Whitman, the Columbine killers, and others. Should facts be ignored simply because some distort them to scapegoat? The fact is lots of signs are often given off before tragedies. And even when addressed tragedy still results.
... I'm not saying the signs weren't there.
But for FOX to state that this is an act of terrorism, then the military's failure to act on these obvious (from the media vantage of 20-20 hindsight) signs, then they're also implying the military is responsible for this act of terrorism.
because the signs were there and he dismissed them. Cite FOX when next you make that comparison.
I'm still expecting these people to start trumpeting the bush kept us safe,now look whats happened meme. I'm surprised they haven't been proclaiming that.
This is typical for these people, representive of a lack of proper respect and no moral values.
Faux has pulled this BS before. A few years ago, an illegal immigrant murdered a suburban housewife and O'Reilly referred to it as "a micro 9/11".
You can see the Fox News guys practically salivating at the prospect of "a terrorist attack on American soil", to try to prove that the current administration is soft on terrorism.
Not that the last attack on American soil was under the Bush/Cheney regime or anything.
Memory in this country is pitifully bad.
So I forget, was Clinton off clearing brush for 4 months prior to the OK City bombing?
Was Clinton reviled by everyone in the country before the OK bombing?
Was Clinton forewarned about the OK City bombing? Yeah, they're both the same thing, thanks Foxholes for pointing out the "glaring" similarities...
Yeah, its exactly the same according to Fox. Clinton had OKC, Bush had 9/11, and Obama had Ft. Hood. They are all pretty much the same, and all Presidents have them.
Fucking idiots.
By saying these three instances are remotely similar, it is to admit that you know nothing about any of them.
... on O'Reilly last night, it was 'an act of war'. So says terrorist expert Monica 'screech' Crowley.
Irrespective that wars are waged between countries - but that is just a detail.
We had two horrible shooting sprees last week. In both of them a disgruntled employee (or ex-employee) went to his work place and shot a number of fellow workers, causing death and serious injury.
The shootings at Ft. Hood by Major Hasan are being described as Islamic Terrorism.
The shootings in Orlando by Jason Rodriguez are not being described as "Catholic Terrorism" by anyone, even though the circumstances are so similar.
An added note - terrorism is political violence committed against civilians. Only in Orlando were the victims civilians.
Stop confusing us with those pesky facts.
No one made John Allen Mohammed a Islamic terrorist.
And it's "an Islamic" terrorist you inarticle-ate fool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI
through that stunning tribute until the end when the original "Chocolate Rain" appeared in the video screen as my next possible selection.
Bonehead and Racist Nazi announcer of the Anti American Nit Wit noise network stir the pot of LIES, Twisted TRUTHS and Hatred yet again to advance the party of Hates agenda the Racist Nazi Christian (RNC) and the Goofy Opposition Party (GOP), both Anti American parties both strong parties of HATRED, LIES, TWISTED TRUTHS.
As a Veteran retired doing what the scum sucking wacko right wing christian hate mongers reuse to do I hold the fox Anti American Noise net work the RNC and the GOP in complete contempt as ANTI AMERICAN HATE MONGERING Organizations, I spit and defecate on every thing they represent.
...Indeed, most of the evidence so far seems to indicate this was a militarized case of "going postal"
is ridiculous. Officials are now stating that they were reluctant to do anything because of "political correctness".
Fox is reprehensible all of the time, but C&L is going to be shown to be way off base on this one. Way off.
Have you looked at the definition of 'Going Postal?'
And for a load of assholes try to pull a 'cover my ass' lameshit excuse blaming 'political correctness' as a reason for inaction is in and of itself reprehensible. When has the military worried about PC shit anyway? DADT, yeah that's so PC. See the big bad killers trembling in their boots over being rude to and expelling stable queers from the military? Women who are raped by fellow soldiers? Oh they're rude--to the victims.
Face it. This guy was red flag city, and there is such a need for warm bodies to carry guns in foreign countries, that people who could have done something for and about the guy let it go.
They've no one to blame but themselves for dereliction of duty. In other words, it was their duty to bounce this guy before this happened, and they didn't.
saying "going postal" IS the correct term for what happened. That's what GIs on the base are saying and it's the only thing that really makes sense. As someone who served back in the early 80's and know the kinds of things that go on in the military it isn't even that surprising given the current state of military affairs.
The people who are going to be found to have be off base are the wingers. Not that they'll ever believe the truth anyway.
I heard a report that some in the military were afraid to discipline or bounce Hasan from service b/c it might be seen as "picking on a Muslim". Pure genius.
picking on queers, or victims of rape. If a woman is raped by a fellow soldier, her career is pretty much over.
>"Officials are now stating that they were reluctant to do anything because of "political correctness"."
I call BS. They didn't mind bullying him for years. There is nothing PC about the military. Been in it, been there, done that, got a t-shirt.
BTW, anyone else notice that 2 guns and claims of shouting 'Allahu Akbar' have fallen by the wayside?
Great! I have been waiting for 14 years to start hearing people say that the Oklahoma City bombing was due to the dangerous christians in this world and that Christianity is responsible for just about as much death as the Muslims are...and really when you are talking and the grand scale that is the blood bath of religious thinking you are only talking about a matter of degree, the Christians are just as crazy as the Muslims and everyone who believes in which ever space god is about as dangerous as anyone else who believes in any other space god.
I am a strong believer that we will never have peace in this world until we drop religion from everything! And Jesus should be the first to go...
...You know... as a sign of good faith...or uh, good faithlessness.
If it was in fact a terrorist act isn't it great how law enforcement was able to stop and apprehend this terrorist? This counters the arguments they made about good policing being unable to stop terrorists.
Here's another idea. Why not let the SOB have his day in court and then we can find out his motives.
"Responding to the allegations in the media that the attack was based on his Muslim faith, Kern told IPS that he did not know of anyone on the base who felt this was the case.
"We all wear the same uniform here, it's all green. I've seen the news, but most folks here assume it's just a soldier that snapped," Kern explained. "I have not talked to anyone who thinks what he did has anything to do with him being a Muslim. There are thousands of Muslims serving with dignity in the US military, in all four branches."
http://www.alternet.org/world/143837/10_suici...
with the Oklahoma City bombing is that they were both carried out by men who served in the US military.
Using Fox logic, I suppose the military is an al Qaeda cell.
Why is it Pete Hoekstra who's taking it upon himself to tell the press that this radical cleric is having his email read by U.S. intelligence agencies? The FBI had not said publicly that this cleric had been emailing Hasan. The CIA, the NSA, the White House... nobody else had reported this cleric was e-mailing Hasan. This is just Pete Hoekstra letting us know -- and letting the radical cleric that is under surveillance know -- that he's under surveillance.
This is a guy who, in 2006, called a press conference to great fanfare to announce the weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. This is the same person who has accused the CIA of lying to him many times and turned around when Nancy Pelosi said the CIA hadn't told the truth about torture and interrogation techniques, said it was obviously absurd the CIA lied would ever lie to Congress. And now, he's turning around and saying the executive was withholding information. So, this is what he does, from his perch on the Intelligence Committee.
http://www.slate.com/discuss/forums/thread/34...
Thanks for helping out, Pete.
BE AFRAID!!!
BE VERY AFRAID!
DON'T THINK! BUY THINGS YOU DON'T NEED! PRAY TO JEEBUS!
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